Monday, March 17, 2008

Adventures in Computer Delivery

My new iMac computer arrived and it's beautiful! It's also a joy to use and I fell in love with it in less than 24 hours. Now I want a Mac laptop, too!

Of course, I have a story about the delivery of the new computer.

When I ordered the computer, I asked my parents if I could have it delivered to them at their house. I'm at the Evil Day Job (EDJ) Monday through Friday and I was sure the delivery would be during the week. And sure enough, the original estimated arrival date was Tuesday, March 18.

Saturday morning, as I'm drinking coffee, I decide to check the tracking number to see where the computer is now and see that it's on the Fed Ex truck, scheduled for a Saturday delivery! =8-O

I hurry up and call my dad since I don't have a clue when Fed Ex is going to arrive and it was already after 9am. This is where I got my first hint that things weren't going to go as discussed. His reply was he wanted to go to the grocery store. I was like, okay, but could you leave Mom home--just in case? And that's what he did.

It never occurred to me that this would become an ongoing issue for the day. I'd assumed--incorrectly it seems--that they would still take delivery of the computer for me even if it was Saturday because I needed to write, and in my mind, that's every bit as much of a commitment as the EDJ. I assumed wrong.

The first call from my parents came at noon. Could my dad have the tracking number? He's going to call and find out where it's at. I said, well, yeah, but-- Hello? Hello? He'd gone to get a piece of paper to write down the number. When he finally got back on the phone, I read him what it said at the Fed Ex site: 8:05 on truck for delivery. He conceded that Fed Ex wasn't going to know exactly where the truck was and when it could be expected to make delivery.

There were more calls to tell me that the computer had yet to arrive. At 1:30 it's my mom on the line suggesting they just leave a note on the door for the Fed Ex guy to drive over to my house instead. Yeah, right, like he's going to do that with a computer.

I conceded that no writing would be accomplished and that I was going to have to drive over to my parents' house. I told my mom that I'd be there as soon as I took a shower. Yes, it's true, I was still in my pajamas while I was trying to write.

I was just getting ready to leave my house when the phone rang again. The computer was there. Yea! I drove over and got it and brought it home.

Why were my parents so hot to leave the house? Did they have lunch plans with friends? Did they have matinee tickets at the theater?

Nope, they wanted to go to the natural store and eat free samples.

I kid you not. This was far more important than my writing and it would be obvious to anyone else, right?

I love my parents dearly, but they can make me insane. I guess it's mutual. I can't help but wonder, though, what they would have done if this was during the week and I was at the EDJ? It wasn't as if I didn't consult with them on the delivery thing before I even placed an order for the computer and it wasn't as if they didn't know it could come on a Saturday. I told them the delivery range and there were no protests like Saturday is free sample day. :-)

Anyway, the computer is home and set up without any need to consult instructions. I turned it on and it recognized my other computers on the network without my having to do a thing! (Keep in mind that after three or four days of work, I still can't get my two Windows XP computers to access each other! I can get on the desktop and access the laptop, but not the other way around.) Um, come to think of it, the Mac only reads the laptop, too, so clearly the issue is the PC desktop.

I didn't get to use the Mac too much. I have to move the old desktop out of the prime spot, put the Mac in that spot, dig out my printer and other peripheral disks to load the drivers, and get my programs loaded, but I was immediately struck by how easy the Mac is. I turned it on and it just worked. Wow! What a concept.

The only two things I don't like about it are the keyboard and the mouse. I need an ergonomic keyboard and my old one is so old, it doesn't even have a USB plug, so I ordered a new one. The mouse is just awful! The cord is short and constantly in my way and it's too flat to fit comfortably in my hand. I also ordered a cordless laser mouse, and since I'm going to lose the two USB ports on the sides of the Apple keyboard, I got a USB hub, too.